Strange Conclusion
by Jet556
Summary: Conclusion of the "Strange" series, set during "Enter the Serpent."
1. 9:55

**Welcome everyone. This is the conclusion to the "Strange" series. Why? Because it needs a conclusion! After this story Basil, Cherie and the like would essentially be just background characters. No adventures of their own, except in AUs of course. Also, this story will be much shorter. Ten chapters or less. Enjoy and review.**

 **9:55**

In the entrance lobby of the Abode of Alarm, Basil Hagen stood arguing with the lobotomized Quentin Berkhart. Sitting in chairs, Cherie Burlyn and Venus Kellerman waited.

"For goodness sake, let us in!"

"I so sorry but we cannot let anyone in until ten."

"The sign outside says nine and the ninth hour is almost over!"

"Today it is ten."

"You know, I think I liked you better pre-lobotomy."

Cherie only laughed while reading a magazine. Watching, Venus turned her head to ask Cherie a question.

"I can't remember but have I been given an explanation?"

"You probably have but I'll remind you… Actually, I have no idea how to put it. It is the sort of thing I'd need dolls and a whole lot of therapy to help me explain it." That was the simplest way of putting it. Had Basil been the speaker he would have said something more archaic, more formal, more dated and very much harder to understand. It all depended on how many of the words Basil was using were known to the people present. "And we missed an eclipse for this."

"No we didn't, I took a video of it on my phone." Said Venus.

"Well, at least we have something to watch while Basil and Quentin argue."


	2. 10:09

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 **10:09**

"Alright…" sighed Basil. "It is nine past ten, can you let us in now?"

"No." replied Quentin, as deadpan as his lobotomy allowed him to be.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'NO?'"

"We are having some technical difficulties so we will be opening at two." Replied Quentin. By "technical difficulties" he meant that Byron Clarence was now in the building and Legendre was fighting for his life against the man Cassandra had sent to kill him. Apparently, she had grown tired with waiting for his defective clone body to do him in.

"For the love of Ogma the animatronics you have barely work and only now you are getting around to fixing them?"

"Yes."

Having grown bored with watching the video of the eclipse for the tenth time, Cherie and Venus had grown even more bored with watching Basil argue with Quentin. Also if the Abode of Alarm would not be open until two then there was no reason to be waiting here.

"What do you say we just go look around some stores, have lunch, look at some more stores and then come back here just before two?" asked Cherie.

"Won't Basil have to eat?" asked Venus.

"He'll leave when he gets hungry, then he'll come back to resume arguing." Replied Cherie.

"Okay then, lets go." And with that Venus and Cherie left the Abode of Alarm.


	3. 1:49

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 **1:49**

To say Basil would have just gone back to arguing with the lobotomized Quentin after lunch would have been untrue. After lunch he had some free time so he spent it amorously with a brunette. In total, Basil would have three loves: Cherie, Venus and the brunette with all of them being fine with each other. The brunette did not look like Cherie or Venus with a different hair color. They both found this unfair since with no resemblance between then they wouldn't be able to cause Basil any confusion. Her name was Diane Howe.

After that, he returned to the Abode of Alarm. There was not a stupid look on his face. He merely sat in a chair and thought. What did he think about? He was not exactly sure. And then it hit him! Cherie, Venus and Diane all had aquiline noses!

Bringing his hand to his face, Basil groaned. How? Just how? It made absolutely no sense! The love triangle thing was behind him and now he was going to end up having a harem of three with the main feature that all three shared was their noses!

"Aw jeeze, it's like the psycho edition of some sort of four person romance!" That was putting it lightly.

It was at that point that Cherie and Venus came walking in. They heard Basil's exclamation and with a smile found someway to tease their beloved.

"Ooh, someone new?" asked Cherie.

"A brunette version of us?" asked Venus.

"She's a brunette but she is not a brunette version of us." Replied Basil.

"That's no fun." Commented Venus.

"Yeah!" chimed in Cherie. "We can't confuse you if she doesn't look like us!"

"She has the same aquiline nose you two have."

"Oh great, we can confused you by wearing masks that leave our noses exposed." Said Cherie.

"I don't think there are such masks, Cherie." Commented Venus.

This only caused Cherie to say one word. "Damn!"

Basil's response? He laughed.


	4. 2:43

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 **2:43**

Basil would be angry to know that he missed Chaz screaming at a chewy worm thinking it was a real worm. It all had to do with no one liking Chaz and if someone did they would have to be insane, uncivilized and unintelligent. Of course, giving that it was taking forty-three minutes to find wherever that secret passage to where Legendre was hiding hearing something funny would probably bring his mood back up after this.

It should be noted that Cherie and Venus had just about given up, leaving the half-blind guy to search. Five eyes would have been great if four out of those five had not given up.

"Some help would be good!"

"If we didn't find it before then we won't find it now and I doubt Legendre would just leave his door open." Commented Cherie.

"Cherie, pessimism is for idiots." Replied Basil. It was true. Pessimists were not intelligent they didn't even qualify as people. Neither did cynics. "Now get back to looking for that secret door." Making his way to an Aztec mask, Basil took a good look at it. There must have been something here. Less of that weird key Lee used and more of something old fashioned. He pushed the stand the mask was on and it immediately went toppling over. "Are there cameras? Are there cameras?"

"None visible." Answered Venus.

Basil then looked at the mask and noticed the words "Made in America" on it. It was a fake… Of course it was.

"Like they will really charge me for something they can get off from Target." It wasn't even from Target it was from something far lower. There was a reason Target would only be in Canada for a little while but that was not the place this fake mask had come from. Also there would be no charge for some fake mask getting broken. It was just some costume store thing that was so common it would take until 2015 for the store to finally get rid of them all.

"No, no, that is not a Target product." Observed Cherie.

"I don't care." Basil then walked over to an Egyptian sarcophagus. "Where was this made? Wales?" Spain actually. He opened the sarcophagus and found a hole in the wall leading to who knew where. "Well, how about that? I found it."

"We didn't think that would actually open." Stated Venus. It was true.


	5. 3:01

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 **3:01**

Pointing his gun at Legendre, Clarence glared at the witch doctor. He glared more horribly than Medusa ever could!

"You are strong, Legendre." Said Clarence. "I will give you that. Who would have thought you'd have been so strong, a man whose mind has been transferred to a defective clone body. One that is falling apart… You shouldn't have trusted Cassandra."

"I've got more lives than a black cat!" replied Legendre, a hellish fire in his eyes.

"Really? That cliché line?" Clarence gave a laugh. "I thought you were better than that."

"Oh, I am. And if you think I'd be alone then you are sadly mistaken." Out of a shadowy corner came that bird that Basil had dubbed Murder 2.0. It flew at Clarence's face and like Ogier's falcon at Hasting it made him a horrible thing to look at. It did not last long but the scars were there nonetheless and there were many of them. Clarence tore the bird away just as it cost him the sight in his left eye and shot it more times than needed.

With a hand over his left eye, Clarence once more pointed his gun at Legendre. "A bird? I was hoping for something better."

"Always happy to supply." Legendre's eyes moved from another corner of the room to Clarence. A seven foot tall human-like ape creature with long arms, dark hair, three toes on each foot which were seventeen inches long and seven inches wide, bright red eyes the size of silver dollars and a chest three feet wide came out of the shadows and grabbed Clarence. "Do not harm him, Jones." The monster Jones, for that was its name, obeyed and simply held Clarence in such a grip one such as he could not escape it. "Good. Now, Clarence, I will have you strapped down to a table and like the savage Chief Powhatan to the foolishly trusting trader John Ratcliffe I shall flay you alive!"

"Well, better than that plan of going all Vlad the Imapler on Hagen." Commented Clarence. "Just wish you weren't going to flay me alive."

Legendre gave a laugh. A deep and fruity laugh! "Would you rather I cut off your ears, nose and lips and force you to eat them?"

"No, no. Being flayed alive is good."

"I should hope so. You always found your ears, nose and lips to be your best features."


	6. 3:19

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 **3:19**

As Legendre watched Clarence get strapped to a table by Jones, he felt it the perfect time to monologue. Why? Because he liked taking stabs at cliché villainy! 

"Byron, my old friend, it pains me to have to do this but due to an occult artifact that has revealed my past lives to me I have realized something. Do you know what that is?" Clarence didn't ask a question but he felt that he was going to get an answer anyway. "It is that in every life I've ever had, even down to my first past life in the era that came before the founding of Greece, Egypt, Babylon, Rome or any of Asia's nations! In that time I was a man whom people would call an enchanter, my enemy a beast from the north… Hagen's past life… Will I never be rid of him?"

"Well, it depends. Were you the one who has always fired the first shot?"

"Silence!" Legendre raised his hands up. "Be silent! Hagen and his past lives are not the point here! Before he even appeared on the scene I was on top of the world and then Cassandra's past lives show up! The past lives of that woman whom sent you here to kill me!" Legendre looked as if he was about to burst a blood vessel. "Always she cast me down to the bottom of the totem pole! First there is her, then that Asian bodyguard of hers, then Fatticus and that other idiot. Then there is you! Then there is a countless array of others! Then there is me!"

"Dear god, does he ever stop?" muttered Clarence. He was present many times for Legendre's monologues. They bored him quickly.

"Always I get toppled by that harpy! Cassandra haunts me more than any past life of Hagen ever will! I am always at the top of the world, then she comes along and I am at the bottom. If I am to die, then this time I shall die at the top! I will flay you alive, quickly take car of Hagen, then I will put Cassandra in the ground. At long last I will be on the top again no matter how briefly it is!"

"That's great, Legendre." Replied Clarence. "Is there any moment when this flaying starts or are you going to go on for a bit longer?"

"You better get comfortable, I still have three hours to go on this."


	7. 4:11

**Welcome back everyone. This is the ending. Enjoy and review.**

 **4:11**

"And then the flying umbrella started chasing me and…" Clarence couldn't believe it. Legendre had gone from some villainous monologue to giving him his life story. It was at about this point that Basil and his lovely companions entered the room.

"What the hell?" Basil saw Clarence strapped to a table, Legendre sitting on his chest with a knife in hand and some sort of Sasquatch like this behind them.

"Oh crap, I forgot about you." Legendre jumped off of Clarence's chest and pointed at Basil. "Jones! Feast on his flesh!"

Jones, the Sasquatch charged only to run right into the table Clarence on. This resulted in Jones falling onto the table and thus onto Clarence.

Clarence's response? "Get off of me you bungling baboon!" As soon as Jones did, Clarence got free of the restraints and shot Jones. It was fatal. Jones landed upon Legendre, pinning him beneath the great hairy mass. Clarence then stood up and looked at Basil. "As for you! Get out what I'm about to do to him is something that should not been seen by people your age."

"People our age?" asked Basil. "I've seen 'Schindler's List.' What could you possibly do to him that could traumatize me and Venus here?"

"What about me?" asked Cherie.

"You're fourteen, you're still not ready to see some things."

"Out!" Clarence pointed his gun causing the three teens to leave. He wouldn't really have shot them. He just wanted them out. Now looking down at Legendre, a smile came to Clarence's lips. "And now for you.

()

Outside of the Abode of Alarm, Basil held the hands of Cherie and Venus. He looked at them both then started to walk down the sidewalk with them.

"Well, this looks like a nice conclusion to our adventures." He said.

"I guess so." Added Cherie.

"What? Already?" asked Venus. "But I just got started with adventures!"

 **The End**


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